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Movie Overview
Director
• Nanette Burstein
MPAA Rating
PG-13 - for some strong language, sexual material, some drinking and brief smoking - all involving teens.
American Teen (2008)

REVIEWS
NEWS
INTERVIEWS OTHER
OFCS Rating: 50% Rotten
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D
"Teen yearns to expose the aching heart of high schoolers, but comes up short in rather impressive fashion, taking cues from MTV's "The Hills" to manufacture a documentary that doesn't appear to contain a living, breathing moment of reality."  BrianOrndorf.com  Brian Orndorf

1.5/5
"For those who felt that the 40 minutes of MTV's True Life were just not enough, your film has arrived."  Filmcritic.com  Chris Cabin

2.5/4
"If American Teen isn't a particularly deep documentary, it is an entertaining one."  TheMovieBoy.com  Dustin Putman

A
"More entertaining, funny, and hopeful than almost any fictional film I've seen this year."  EricDSnider.com  Eric D. Snider

B
"Enormously entertaining storytelling but highly problematic documentary filmmaking."  Film Blather  Eugene Novikov

B
"May be no more revealing than similar television treatments of kids--and has been molded so smoothly as to sometimes seem staged--[but] it's an engaging portrait."  One Guy's Opinion  Frank Swietek

3/5
"An immensely appealing documentary that enables us to empathize with five very different teenagers in their last year of high school in Warsaw, Indiana."  Spirituality and Practice  Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

2.5/4
"This kind of production is better suited to television than movie theaters. American Teen is a pretty bauble: shiny and alluring from a distance but cheap and plastic when you get close."  ReelViews  James Berardinelli

"If you seek out American Teen looking for an engaging, stylish and surprisingly smart piece of non-fiction entertainment, you're going to be completely won over."  Cinematical  James Rocchi

5/5
"We were on the edges of our seats, willing Jake not to ruin this moment with the girl, hoping Megan realizes her mistake, urging Hannah out of the car, cheering Colin's game, nurturing Mitch's discovery of just being yourself. It is a visceral ride throu"  Cinerina  Karina Montgomery

"A blatantly direct pastiche of The Breakfast Club, if not The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2."  UGO  Keith Uhlich

B-
"Burstein's camera is right on Mitch's face when he presumably first notices Hannah playing with her band on the school's stage - happy accident? planted idea? editing with hindsight?"  Reeling Reviews  Laura Clifford

"[I]ntimate and incisive... a peek into the horrors of adolescence that most of us have tried to forget, and shouldn't..."  Flick Filosopher  MaryAnn Johanson

1/5
"By far the most shallow and inauthentic film that I have seen so far in 2008 and bear in mind, I have seen "Zombie Strippers.""  eFilmCritic.com  Peter Sobczynski

5/10
"See this film to relive those high school days that you have tried to forget. Or, just talk to your kids."  Monsters and Critics  Ron Wilkinson

"The portraits of these kids often feel honest, sometimes intrusive, and occasionally they come off a little camera-conscious, which may simply be the nature of the beast."  GreenCine  Sean Axmaker

6/10
"While Nanette Burstein's naturalistic approach is admirable, the results are stereotypical, capturing a feeling of authenticity despite some obvious staging."  SSG Syndicate  Susan Granger

4/10
"Teenagers are restless and get very worked up over interpersonal dramas. Gee willickers, I'm sure glad a film crew traveled all the way to north central Indiana to make that shocking discovery."  Antagony & Ecstasy  Tim Brayton
OFCS Rating: 50% Rotten
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